Right after their first rehearsals, the representatives of Belgium, Sweden and Armenia were eagerly awaited by the international press for their first press conference. As ever, esctoday.com will bring you the highlights.

Belgium

First of all the Belgian representative explained his devotion to Elvis Presley. Patrick: "We’ve had some problems with the Elvis Presley fanclub, however it was never our intention to make a fool of Elvis. I’m one of his biggest fans! Copycat is just a funny song with a piece of rock 'n' roll in it; nothing more, nothing less."

Many journalists were surprised that the animation cat, the so called copycat, wasn’t on stage yet during the rehearsal. Patrick explained: "You will get to see the copycat during the next rehearsal for sure, because copycat is an important character for our song. Its presence reflects our sense of humour and of course we hope it will be appreciated by the rest of Europe as well."

Finally Patrick stated that the show element wasn’t as important to him as many people thought it would be. "Our performance doesn’t have that many special effects; it’s a songcontest after all, not a showcontest."

Sweden

Swedish representative Malena Ernman took her first steps into the world of popular music when she participated in Melodifestivalen. "I really feel like a virgin", Malena said. She told the press that it feels great to combine opera and popular music. According to Malena the two styles are completely different from each other and for her, this Eurovision adventure was a way of trying to make opera music more popular. After this, she sang a piece of a famous opera composition "Summertime". Malena told the press that she would love to record an album with both styles on it; a crossover album of pop and opera music.

The Swedish delegation decided not to change too much in the stage performance. Christer Björkman, the Swedish Head of Delegation: "Every year we’re trying to do the best we can and we can only hope to make it to the top of the scoreboard" .

Armenia

First of all Inga and Anush explained the title of their song, Jan Jan. Anush: ‘It’s an idiomatic expression for sunlight and warmth. Generally you can say it’s just a happy exclamation used by people when they’re enjoying themselves.

Inga and Anush are well known for their folkore music. However, they decided to pick an uptempo, modern song for the Eurovision Song Contest. Anush explained: "We love to sing folklore music. Every nation has its own unique musical style and Armenia is quite famous for its folklore music. Once you’ve heard an Armenian folklore tune, you fall in love with it immediately. We chose something different for the Eurovision Song Contest though, because we want to appeal to as many European televoters as possible." When the duo was asked about their mysterious outfits for the contest, they replied in unison: "No comment!"